Pages

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Triptych- M.S.Spencer

A new movie, the Monuments Men starring George Clooney,
tells the story of a group of academics drafted by the U. S. Army to comb
through the rubble at the end of World War II and try to protect and preserve
the glorious monuments of Europe. In honor of this movie (and the book it's based
on) I'd like to give readers a chance at another thrilling
story of long-lost art works, preserved and protected in a secret place beneath
a castle in Strasbourg. Triptych is romantic suspense at its best, a novel in which legend,
history and romance intertwine in a triptych of suspense.

Three sisters host a mysterious Frenchman who comes to Washington to peddle
artworks—artworks that turn out to be lost masterworks of the greatest European
painters—Hals, Rembrandt, Vermeer. The heroine's misplaced suspicion leads to
their disappearance, and it takes the ingenuity of all three sisters and their
three lovers to solve the mystery.

Here's the blurb:

Both Miranda
Cabot and her sister Honor prefer their solitude to romance, Miranda having
watched her husband die in flames on the Potomac River rocks called the Three
Sisters. Not so the youngest, Sybil, who invites a mysterious Frenchman calling
himself the Chevalier du bon Arnaque to stay with them in their mansion
overlooking the Sisters.

Misgivings about
the stranger’s intentions lead Miranda and Honor to ask their neighbors Dieter
Heiliger and his grandson Corey to chaperone. Three beautiful, strong-willed
women living in a house with three handsome, virile men results inevitably in
an intricate web of jealousy, sex, and intrigue. Add in long-lost master
artworks, stolen prototypes and a resident genius and you have a recipe for
romance. Who will end up with whom, and will the Three Sisters take another
life as the legend calls for?

Triptych has three Five-Star Reviews and tied for Best Cover
and for Best First Chapter at D. Renee Bagby Presents First Chapters (November
2011).

Starting April 1 Triptych is ON SALE
at Secret Cravings Publishing for a significant savings.

Excerpt
(PG): A Masterpiece is Discovered

Forty minutes later she waited while
her friend Polly Needles, one of the curators of Renaissance art at the
National Gallery, frowned at the painting. The woman’s ice blonde hair, cut in
an unfashionable bob, swung thoughtfully to and fro in the slight breeze from
the ceiling fan in the tiny office. She fingered the fine set of pearls at her
throat. Lips pressed together, she stood and straightened the skirt of her
severe gray flannel suit.

“At first glance I’d say it’s
authentic. By which I mean not a forgery, but a genuine original. Unless I miss
my guess, it’s from the 17th-century Dutch school at Haarlem. It’s eerily
reminiscent of some of Hals’ group portraits. Tell me again where you got
this?”

“I told you, the man who’s staying with
us brought them from France.
He calls himself the Chevalier du Bon Arnaque. He claims to be acting as an agent
for a collector who wishes to remain anonymous.”

Polly stopped and stared at Miranda. “What did you say his name is?”

“Chevalier du Bon Arnaque. Why?”

Polly put a hand to her mouth in an
uncharacteristically girlish gesture. Through muffling fingers she gurgled, “Do
you have any idea what it means?”

“N…no. Nothing came up on Google. And
Dieter Heiliger, my neighbor, hasn’t been able to find any trace of his family
in Alsace.
Why? Do you think it’s an alias?”

By this time tears of laughter streamed
down Polly’s face. She gulped, wiped her nose, and sat at her desk. “Yes,
Miranda,” she managed between gasps for breath, “I do.”

Miranda sat down hard on the other
chair. She realized that, subconsciously, she’d been hoping Polly would confirm
Luc’s legitimacy, that her doubts and fears would prove unfounded. “Well?”

“Miranda, a “bon arnaque” is argot—French
slang—for a good ssscccam artist!” And she went off into a long spasm of
giggles again. “What a perfect choice for a charlatan!”

Her friend watched with alarm, trying
to dispel the feeling that bits of her heart were breaking off and crashing
into her veins like tiny ice floes. She let Polly’s mirth subside. “So, okay,
now we know he’s a crook. But what about the painting?”

Polly sobered immediately. “Ah, yes.
I’m almost positive it’s valuable and old. How long can I keep it? I’d like to
have our conservators examine it.” She started to pick it up, then suddenly
bent and peered at the upper right corner of the painting. “Wait a minute.” She
grabbed a magnifying glass from her desk. “Wait a minute, wait a minute,
wait…a…minute.” She straightened and
turned to her friend, her eyes wide. “Miranda, I…I think this may actually be a Hals! I’d swear that’s his
signature. I don’t think I’ve seen this one before, not in any catalogue I can
think of.”

“What do you mean—how could there be
any unknown Hals?”

“Frans Hals had a very long career, and
toward the end of his life his style went out of vogue. There could be several
works out there that we’ve never seen. He was a pauper by the time he died, and
many of his paintings disappeared or were sold quietly for cash. If it’s real,
that means your friend the scam artist has obtained a painting worth millions.”
She tapped a finger on the frame. “But from where?”